


Lie Again

by yeosinnerz



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Agony, Angst, Brief mentions of Seungkwan pissing his pants, Crime, Dark fic, Disturbing Themes, Drama, Fade to Black, Feral Behavior, Jackson Wangs a documentary host lol, M/M, Minor Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Yoon Jeonghan, Minor Kim Mingyu/Xu Ming Hao | The8, Minor Wen Jun Hui | Jun/Xu Ming Hao | The8, Minor Xu Ming Hao | The8/Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi, Murder, Prison, Unreliable Narrator, Violence, also funnily enough he manages to piss on Soonyoung, and cares too much about Chan to let them plot murder, because Jeonghan's a petty bitch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:01:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23509570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeosinnerz/pseuds/yeosinnerz
Summary: "We are joined today by Choi Seungcheol, one of the world's well known criminals. He's here to tell us about his life, and what his relationships were like before he was incarcerated."aka Cheol's retelling of his life while being a country's biggest crime organization boss, and his feelings on 12 boys who joined his family in many unorthodox ways.
Relationships: Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups & Everyone, Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Yoon Jeonghan
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Lie Again

**Author's Note:**

> uuuuuuhhhhhhhhh help i don't know how to tag

Seungcheol is escorted into a room he's never been to in the compound. It's smaller, and it's nicer than his bedroom in the building. Like an office, yet better somehow. It may just be Seungcheol having not seen anything outside of the compound for months. The officer's hands are on his cuffs tightly, dragging him in, though, when they actually get the door closed he's released. 

Seungcheol notes the additional people in the room, aside from himself and the officer. There's a man sitting across from an empty chair, two additional men standing behind cameras on either side of the chairs, and another man with a boom. Seungcheol bows his head in greeting to everybody in the room.

"Welcome, and thank you for joining us this evening, Mr. Choi. Please, take a seat." The interviewer gestures to the chair across from him. Seungcheol slides into the chair, shuffling to get comfortable in the downtime they have. 

The interviewer gets a countdown from the cameraman behind Seungcheol, before he gets the signal to begin speaking. 

"Hello, my name is Jackson Wang, and welcome to an exclusive documentary series that lets us sit down with some of the world's well known criminals and have a chance to retell their stories to give us a little more insight into what happened. Today, I am joined by Choi Seungcheol at a Penitentiary in ______. Thank you Mr. Choi for joining us today.

"Thank you for having me." Seungcheol smiles, eyes crinkling at the corner. 

"To begin this interview, please state your name, age, current amount of days in incarceration, and your sentence to the camera." Jackson instructs, and Seungcheol looks to the camera near his head.

"My name is Choi Seungcheol, and as of now, I'm twenty-four years old. I've been in this place for six months now, approximately. I'm here on three separate life sentences." Seungcheol complies with the man. There's no point in trying to defy anyone anymore. Seungcheol crosses an ankle over his knee and leans back in his seat, interlocking his fingers. His wrists don't move very far on their own anymore.

"Do you mind me asking what specifically you're in for?" Jackson questions him. Seungcheol looks him in the eyes as he's asking his question, to show he's actually paying attention and caring about the interview.

"Drug distribution and trafficking, mmultiple counts of murder in the first degree, and I was in charge of organ harvesting from the bodies that failed to keep up through other… very horrific crimes." Seungcheol says, his face falling when he has to repeat his crimes. He knows exactly what he's done wrong, and it still feels wrong to talk about it even though he can't change the fact it happened. It's like reliving a seven year horror story that actually happened.

"Would you like to tell us your story?" Jackson asks him, his voice quieter incase he feels scared.

Seungcheol's heart burns a hole in his chest. "Sure." He says quietly, mentally preparing to lay his heart out on the table for the world to hear. It's elaborate, and heart wrenching for him. Knowing all the evil he caused and all the pain he allowed to happen to others. 

"Whenever you're ready." Jackson says in return.

"I joined an organization, hah, should I put it as an organized crime syndicate? When I was eighteen, just after I moved here for college from Korea." Seungcheol starts out. This is always the easiest thing to start out with, though Seungcheol never quite knows if he should call it an organization or a family. He may have found a family in it, but it was definitely far from that.

"I remember those easier days, having been in a new country, and living out my normal life as a broke college student just getting by to get my degree. It had been a night returning from the campus library, maybe a week before my exams? When I was walking the usual path on my way home. I was walking down the alley I usually took to get to my apartment. There had been a guy who had pulled me aside in the darkness of the alleyway, asking me a few questions I didn't know the answers to."

_ "'Hey, kid. What are you doing here so late?'"  _ Seungcheol does his best to imitate a deeper voice of a man he remembers so familiarly. "He had asked. I didn't know what he was saying, and what he wanted from me. I didn't know how to react to the situation, and he got mad when I didn't reply as quickly as he wanted. He shoved me to the ground. I tried to give him a reason for me being there, but he wouldn't listen at all. He ended up just calling somebody and taking me to some location. I was just trying to get home, and unexpectedly, I got kidnapped. If everything had gone as usual that night, I wouldn't be here today."

"I'm so sorry that happened to you. It must have been traumatic. You mentioned they took you to a second location. Do you mind sharing what happened when you arrived at the second location?" Jackson asks, his eyes and face sympathetic to Seungcheol.

"They had me blindfolded and tied up before they took me to this one guy. The leader of the syndicate. He asked me who I was, where I was from, and what I was doing on their property. I told him that my apartment was down that alleyway, which was definitely true. I lived in a small apartment that had an entrance that was in that alley. I had no intent for funny business, I was just a boy on his way home from school. He didn't exactly buy it either, though. I was told I could die or join them in what they were doing. Fearful for my life, I joined them, and we know where that led me." Seungcheol laughs at the last part, knowing that he easily could have just said no, and let himself die for the sake of it, but no, he had to be a scared little wimp and want to stay alive.

"And what happened after that?" Jackson looks up from his notepad. 

"I did exactly what they told me. I was allowed to continue with my normal life, but I had to do what they told me to do when I was told. I got pretty good at it too, and made my way up the ranks pretty early on. I was second in command when I was just shy of my twentieth." 

"Oh my. You must have been highly regarded. When did your major crimes take place?" Jackson asks.

"Around that time, too. In my first year, it was all minor stuff, as I mainly worked in their shell companies, and doing other jobs that worked me up the ranks. They started me out in the drug trafficking aspect on my twentieth. I oversaw everything that went in and out and was forced to execute anyone who crossed my path. I took it literally, but everyone I had no choice but to kill hurt me. I live with the pain that they felt dying by my hands, and it always makes me cry every time." Seungcheol raises his hands to wipe at some tears that collect on his eyes.

"And did you meet anybody along the way?" Jackson asks, like he doesn't already know these answers. He read his case file and everyone Seungcheol was associated with.

"Plenty of people." Seungcheol says, sitting up. "I used to know these two people, Jeonghan and Joshua. They were so sweet, as I remember them. They were both a little unorthodox, and were always out of the house at night, but they were nice. A little devilish, sometimes, but really good people. You couldn't separate those two without a fight." Seungcheol reminisces in the good times for a moment.

"And were you aware of what they were doing?" Jackson asks him.

"Not at the beginning I didn't. And I'm sure they didn't know what I did either. We all had moved in with each other on a just whim. Jeonghan was loaded, so we owned a pretty big house with a ton of rooms. We had everything we wanted at that house. It was paradise in something of monetary value. It was home." Seungcheol smiles. The only good memories of his past life were his friends. He wishes it was like that forever.

"When faced at trial, when you were retelling your story to the jury, you mentioned Kwon Soonyoung. Tell me what you remember about him." Jackson tells him.

"Ah, Kwon Soonyoung, Kwon Soonyoung." Seungcheol smiles. "He was a reckless one. Absolutely fucking reckless. Am I allowed to swear? We took him in when he was on the run from my organization's rival group. From what I know, he killed their leader and a bunch of other people in a haste for some girls that he noticed were being abused. For being such a wild child, he had his wits about women being abused. They were on his tail for weeks until we got him. When we took him in, he layed low for almost a year and half before we changed his identity to give him a break. That boy wasn't always Kwon Soonyoung, I gave him that name. At the end of being free, he burnt our home down when we all got caught. I don't know what happened to him after that." Seungcheol frowns. Watching as his home burnt down, it was near horrifying. The life he had dedicated to it, was coming to an end. 

"According to his case file, he remained in the house until he was pulled out by firefighters. He was pretty severely burned on his body. What do you think about that?" Jackson questions him. 

"Well- oh, god. That's horrible. Did he recover?" Seungcheol asks, clutching his hands to his chest. Soonyoung was a lovely kid, for as long as he knew it, despite all the chaos he brought to the house. Seungcheol remembers the time he just let Jihoon manhandle him and didn't fight back, despite his training in taekwondo. His squeaky laughs reply in his head for a few seconds.

"He did, but he escaped the hospital afterwards. His location right now is currently unknown." Jackson tells him, and Seungcheol frowns. 

"Holy shit." Seungcheol says, pouting. "That makes me feel bad."

"I understand it may be painful to hear this now, but it's necessary to continue the interview. What can you tell us about Wen Junhui?" Jackson asks, gently moving the topic of the discussion to another person Seungcheol had been associated with in his time. Junhui, oh boy.

"Oh, god fuck. Jun…" Seungcheol is rendered speechless by a name and having remembered such a beautiful face. "He was…so beautiful. We took him in a few months after Soonyoung. He knew how to use people. God, it was so easy to commit crimes around the guys once we knew of what everyone did as a job."

"Was Jun involved with anyone? Or was he a solo worker?" Jackson asks him. 

"He was an assassin in my organisation. Highly regarded with a one hundred percent kill rate. Jun knew what he was doing and he did it in such a way that he didn't seem suspicious to the cops. We all learned a thing or two from him over the years." Seungcheol says. "He filled our house up with little cat trinkets. It was cute. Jun was adorable. Big and cuddly, he was. I miss him. Do you know what happened to him?"

"He went missing after your house burned down. They suspect he went back to the organization." Jackson tells him. "What information more do you have on Jun?"

"He introduced us to his little brother, Yangyang. A super cute kid, I tell you. I hope he doesn't end up like his brother. Jun was pretty secretive, now that I really think about it. They didn't know much about his job except for me. He was putting out hits almost daily. It was scary."

Jackson hums, nodding his head. "I understand. How did being friends with these four people we talked about affect you?" Jackson asks, and Seungcheol takes a little bit of time to think about it. 

"I think for the most part they were actually good, healthy friendships, we were all our own people and respected each other's privacy, though all thirteen of us lived in a house together. There were some squabbles here and there, Chan once told me a story that he and Soonyoung got into an argument and to hide the fact that Chan had thrown knives at him, Soonyoung stabbed himself in the hand and went to the hospital." Seungcheol laughs, remembering when Chan and him had that short time to talk with each other awhile back. "Crazy shit, sometimes." 

Jackson laughs with him, as a way to show he's agreeing. "Continuing on, if you don't mind me, who was Jeon Wonwoo?"

Seungcheol sucked in a sharp intake of air. Wonwoo. Holy shit, he hadn't thought of him in a long time. "I haven't heard his name in quite awhile, dear god. Wonwoo was probably the smartest person I'd ever met. He quite honestly knew the answer to everything. Wonwoo worked close alongside Mingyu. They were a work duo, not one to be messed with. Wonwoo used to scope out jobs, and then sent Mingyu to complete them. It was some scary shit. Wonwoo could easily take out a crowd of people on his own, too. He was physically fit and he was smart, and was trained in almost everything he could have been trained in. Nobody ever crossed him once. But he was such a goofball. He had such a pretty smile and a good personality, I always wonder what drove him to a life of crime. He could have been a musician if he wanted, he was that talented."

"What was Wonwoo's most definitive trait?" Jackson asked.

"Probably his ability to figure a solution to any problem. He made it seem so flawless, he was really an asset to the family. Wonwoo was so special. I miss him, sometimes, you know. I miss them all."

"What can you tell me about Lee Jihoon?" Jackson asks, startling Seungcheol from his thoughts of his friends.

"I was genuinely terrified of him." Seungcheol laughs, throwing his head back. "Jihoon might have been tiny, but boy, he was so mighty. He had some good muscle on him."

"Do you know what he did as a job, perhaps?" 

"Jihoon was a tech kinda guy. He did anything and everything to do with computers. He didn't work under any specific organization, so he did jobs for everyone who asked. I used to get my information from him about what was going on within the other organizations around the country. He could provide me with camera footage, audio recordings, everything. Jihoon had so much power to do anything he wanted. I think that was one of the reasons I was fearful of him at the beginning. We became pretty close friends over time."

"When did he move in?" Jackson asks.

"Honestly, I don't remember when he came into the family, nor do I remember anyone past Jun coming in. Jeonghan and Joshua picked up most of them, and I kinda just rolled with it as we went along. Some others came in as extensions of people already living in the house, so it's hard to discern specific timelines for everyone coming in."

"I see. Do you know what happened to Jihoon?" Jackson questions him.

"No. I haven't heard anything news related to any of us since the fire. I know that they were looking for some of them, but I don't know much about everyone else. It wasn't really disclosed to me at the time."

"Ah, thank you for that. Lee Jihoon's whereabouts are unknown. Police are speculating his death." Jackson says, also unaware of Jihoon's status. He hopes this can let Seungcheol relax a little more. "Xu Minghao. What can you tell us about him?

"He was a quiet kid, but oh boy he could get loud. Minghao… I found him on the streets one day, he was pretty torn up and really skinny. He lived in a very little house with some other super poor people. Apparently his family threw him out over being gay, which shouldn't really be an issue, but they're older people, so who knows what their values were. I hung out with him enough to make him trust me, and I got him to a good place, before he moved in. We were super close, and I was one of the only people in the house he felt comfortable around to begin with."

"Do you know what he did for work?" Jackson asks. 

"He was a prostitute. Minghao didn't want to rely on us as his sole providers, so he began making money for himself in case anything was going to happen. He had no choice but to bring clients home sometimes, but he told us he would try to keep it down for the sake of our sanity, though it wasn't anything we hadn't heard before. He had a small fling with a few of our housemates, most notably being Jun and Soonyoung, but I'm pretty sure he had a relationship with Mingyu at some point too, much to Wonwoo's dismay. Minghao truly was a good kid, though, he always had a knack for fashion and he was pretty and had perfect proportions for modeling and he was slim like a dancer. He was truly one of the most beautiful people I had ever met, and I'm sad to see our relationship ended so soon." Seungcheol frowns, eyes welling up with tears, which he tries to wipe away with his fingers. "I'm sorry, I didn't know it would hurt this bad to talk about him." 

"Do you know what happened to him?" Jackson asks, quietly. 

"Yes." Seungcheol cries. He sucks in a snotty breath of air. 

"Are you comfortable sharing that with me?" Jackson asks him. 

"He got sick. Like, really sick really fast. He practically begged me every day to help him end it, because he wouldn't get better and didn't want to suffer anymore. I felt so bad for him, I didn't want to see him suffer, but I also didn't want to see him die. I told him that if he could wait until I could get him out of the lifestyle we were living, I would take care of him for the rest of his life. I knew some people who I knew were able to take care of Minghao, so I made the decision to let him go to them. I had to move him out of the house silently, so it took awhile, getting everything there, but when I was asked by anybody else what I was doing I just lied and told them Minghao was sick and I was taking him to a place to get him better. It wasn't that much of a lie, now that I realise it, but I think they just let me do it because they knew too. Minghao was special to all of us."

"Do you know what he had?" Jackson asked.

"Something to do with his lungs. He already had a frail immune system as it was, but he got something that just caused hell on him. They had him on assisted oxygen, because he couldn't breathe properly on his own. It was scary seeing him like that, honestly. I think the only thing I would want more in this world besides to not have agreed to do what I did was to take care of Minghao for the rest of his life, but I trust Kun and his buddies to take care of Minghao." 

"I'm sorry," Jackson says, handing him some tissues. Seungcheol takes them in his hands, and brings one to his eyes. 

"It's okay." Seungcheol pats his eyes dry as best he can, before he wipes at his nose. "I love him so much, he means everything to me. I just didn't anticipate the waterworks when thinking about him in such detail."

"I understand. Would you like to take a bit of a break to calm yourself down?" Jackson asks him, and Seungcheol nods his head with urgency. He needs a breather. 

The cameraman behind Seungcheol signals to Jackson that he's paused recording. 

"I understand exactly how you're feeling, Seungcheol. At home, I've got two kids, and my husband is ill enough to the point he can't take care of them, so instead someone we know lives with us and takes care of them. I've dedicated my life to taking care of him when I'm not working, and I know how you feel when you have to watch someone you love be unable to do anything. You're not alone in this." Seungcheol is actually slightly shocked that Jackson would tell him something so personal despite them not knowing each other at all.

"Why are you telling me this?" Seungcheol asks, looking up from where he had buried his head in his knees. 

"You're here being brave enough to tell me about yourself, and how these people had an effect on you, so I think it's only appropriate that I should share some information about myself with you." Jackson reaches out to hold Seungcheol's hand. Seungcheol drops both of his in Jackson's open palm, relaxing and calming down slightly when the pad of Jackson's thumb runs over his knuckles.

"Thank you for sharing that with me, Jackson. I hope everything gets better for you." Seungcheol whispers, meeting Jackson's sympathetic eyes. 

"I hope everything gets better for you too. There's a lot for you to live for." Jackson says in return, offering a small smile to cheer Seungcheol up. Seungcheol gives a smile in return, soon pulling away his hands and sitting up in his chair.

"I think I'm ready to continue this interview." Seungcheol says, dragging a quick hand over his eyes before he smiles again. 

"Alright. Rolling." The cameraman says, giving a thumbs up to Jackson. 

"Alright, Seungcheol. Let's move on to spare you some heartache. What do you know about Lee Seokmin?" Jackson asks, having quickly glanced at his notes for the next name they have to go through.

Seungcheol laughs, smiling. "Oh, Lee Dokyeom, I tell you. He was the brightest and most positive person I had ever met. Nobody ever came close to how great of a person he was. He always knew how to cheer someone up, and he was good at what he did." 

"What did Seokmin do?" Jackson asks.

"He was a killer. Cold blooded, surprisingly. He did a lot of work for people who were being harassed by people, or those who wanted people dead because they wronged them somehow. He wouldn't kill for the sake of killing, he always did it if he knew it would better someone else's life. Seokmin was such a bright and happy person that you actually wouldn't expect him to be a killer. He was so strong."

"Is that so?" Jackson asks.

"Yeah. He got away with everything. He was so meticulous and methodical in his killings that he wasn't even suspected of anything, which is a talent anyone would die for. Though, he used to bring bodies back after Chan arrived. I still don't know what that kid did with them but they never did stay in my house long." Seungcheol says, half smiling at the memories of Seokmin dragging gym bags through their front door at odd hours of the day, only a few days after Chan had arrived at the residence. 

_ "Seokmin, stop dragging dead people into my house without my permission!" _ Jeonghan used to 'scream', or talk as loudly as he could because he was unable to yell, at Seokmin at the early hours, when Seungcheol was sitting in the kitchen, still groggy and trying to pay attention over his morning coffee. 

_ "It's not that big of a deal, Jeonghan. I'm only doing Chan a favour so he can get paid." _ Seokmin would argue back, raising his voice over Jeonghan.

_ "But still! Does that give you a right to bring it into  _ **_my_ ** _ house?" _

_ "No, Jeonghan…"  _

"He and Jeonghan used to argue over bodies in the house. Jeonghan was afraid of getting caught, so he never kept any of his murder-y things at the house in case. He was pretty cautious in that case. Seokmin on the other hand, kept everything in a case under his bed. Jeonghan didn't like that, so they often got into disagreements about it. I've heard accounts from the both of them on multiple occasions professing their urge to murder the opposite in the next argument they got into." Seungcheol says, laughing at some parts, but his voice growing heavier the further he went along with it. "Seokmin was genuinely one of the nicest kids I'd ever met, too. I would have liked to keep in contact with him." 

"You're the only person out of everyone you were associated to have been arrested, right?" Jackson asks. 

"As far as I'm aware, yes." Seungcheol says, crossing his legs again in an attempt to get comfortable. The chair was surprisingly uncomfortable, despite everything.

"How would you feel if I told you Lee Seokmin had been detained at an American airport?" Jackson asks him. 

"I would have to say that you're lying." Seungcheol says, shrugging his shoulders. 

"And if I wasn't?" Jackson asks.

"Then I would have no choice but to believe you. News outside the walls doesn't make it here. I rely on the information I get from the staff here." Seungcheol replies. 

"Well, indeed I am telling the truth. Seokmin's on trial for every single disappearance and murder that's taken place over the last five years. Police were able to retrieve enough DNA evidence from the victims that were recovered, using the case recovered from Seokmin's room after the fire at your home." Jackson tells him. 

Seungcheol's jaw drops open. "Holy shit." 

Across from him, Jackson smiles at his reaction.

"Moving on." Jackson says, licking his finger to turn the page in his notebook. "Who is Kim Mingyu?"

Seungcheol takes a few moments to think. 

"Kim Mingyu was a beast." Seungcheol starts out, smirking ever so slightly. "He was everything you could ever want in a man. Tall, handsome, strong, and really, really fucking clean. No wonder he was such a popular guy. Mingyu worked with Wonwoo pretty closely, and did a lot of work in terms of flirting to catch victims. He worked hard to maintain his body and appearance and was very talented at what he did."

"What did he do mostly among the household?" Jackson asks.

"He did a lot of cleaning. And when I mean a lot of cleaning, I mean a lot. When he wasn't doing any work for Wonwoo or sleeping with Minghao, he cleaned every square inch of the house from morning to night. Chan was dissecting bodies every day for a good month and a half and so Mingyu was cleaning blood up from the living room for hours on the daily. Sometimes he'd joke that he would get fed up with cleaning someday and make a mess everywhere." Seungcheol laughs. "He did normal civilian stuff too. Last I heard, he was going to try and get his degree."

"Did you ever see him execute any crimes?" Jackson asks.

"No. No way. He always did those out of the house, and only sometimes would I see him with a few splatters of blood on his face or scratches on his throat, but nothing more. He was very charismatic, though. I would have to admit I had a little bit of a crush on him too." Seungcheol flushes a pink colour and laughs nervously. "He just had that kind of personality that would make anybody fall for him."

"I understand." Jackson says. "Would you like to move on?"

"Yes, please, if you don't mind." Seungcheol says, but his ears are red. He'd taken some time to reevaluate his feelings for Mingyu, and he definitely still felt the flutter in his heart whenever his name was mentioned. Mingyu was quite the different person in Seungcheol's heart.

"What do you know about Boo Seungkwan?" Jackson questions.

"He was practically still a kid when he came to us. Newly eighteen when we picked him off the street. Kid was screaming and crying and putting up a fuss. We pretended like we knew him and took him to some place to calm him down before we told him we could give him everything he wanted." Seungcheol explains. "He accepted right away."

"What was he like, getting to know him?" Jackson asks. Seungcheol hums in delight. 

"Super nice kid. He was such a happy person, man. The mood maker of the house. He used to sing all the time when he was helping Mingyu wash the dishes, his voice was so soothing, it was amazing. He was pretty mischievous at times, but when Chan moved in he didn't take it particularly well. There was one time he and Soonyoung huddled away in the bathroom to discuss how to get rid of Chan, and Jeonghan wouldn't tolerate  _ 'people slandering his baby' _ and stabbed a knife through the door to scare them. I saw it all from my bedroom on the other side of the hallway. Jeonghan had just skipped down the hallway calling for Joshua. I could see Seungkwan and Soonyoung absolutely terrified in the bathroom. I think Seungkwan might have pissed himself from how unexpected Jeonghan was." Seungcheol laughs, remembering the moment vividly. 

_ "Cheol, don't go telling people you saw this!" _ Seungkwan had shouted at Seungcheol through the hole in the bathroom door, while Seungcheol was laughing so hard he was crying. 

_ "Kwannie, you pissed on me!" _ Soonyoung would complain shortly after. Seungcheol remembers the way his ribs ached after the whole incident.

Jackson lets out a half laugh at it. 

"He was super nice to be around, when he wasn't plotting murder on our youngest." Seungcheol says. "He didn't commit any actual crimes, so I'm assuming he's having the time of his life being free without any consequence."

"I would imagine so." Jackson says. "Moving forward, who was Hansol Vernon Chwe?" 

"Ah, our dear Sollie." Seungcheol coos, pinching the air with his fingers. "Hansol was our most precious boy, before Chan arrived. Hansol was so cute, I tell you. Such a free spirit. He was born to a drug addicted mother overseas, but was taken in by Joshua's family when he was pretty young. They raised him as their own, and when Joshua got into the illegal business, Hansol followed right along, except, instead of becoming an arsonist like Joshua, he became a drug dealer. He did his fair share of drugs, and did a lot of small dealings on the street, but one day he started doing a lot of big shipments. He had a whole bunch of people under his watch, and they did a lot of smuggling and importing to other countries. Hansol always liked to play the game of who could hide a five kilogram package of cocaine in the most unsuspecting place and have it not be picked up by detectors. He was sneaky, always knowing where to hide stuff and have it not be found. Sometimes, when Seungkwan would try and seek out Chan to try and kill him, Hansol was in charge of hiding Chan away."

"And where did Hansol usually hide Chan?" Jackson asks.

"In the air vents, cupboards, you name it. There were so many spaces in the house big enough for any of us to fit into, but only Hansol knew the locations. A lot of cupboards had false walls, and you could fit generally about two people in them, three if everyone was small enough. He always said it was in case the police found us." 

"Did you know any of these hiding spots?" Jackson asks him.

"I knew just about every single one. I had to use my connections to help him get them built. So i guess you could say I had them made." Seungcheol says. "My favourite hiding spot was a place you could only access through a specific kitchen cupboard. You had to slide into the opening behind a false wall and then climb into a little hiding space in the attic area. It was pretty cozy up there, and the exit came through my bedroom, so I spent a lot of time up there when I didn't want anyone to bother me for anything."

"That actually sounds pretty cool. Were you close with Hansol?" Jackson asks. 

"Pretty close, somewhat. I eventually just started getting drugs for his trafficking scheme, and he talked to me about his work pretty frequently. I probably knew him so well I knew his subway order off heart."

"Is that so?" Jackson asks.

"Footlong turkey sub on italian herb and cheese, not toasted-" Seungcheol begins reciting before he's cut off. 

"I don't think the world needs to know what he gets on his Subway sandwich." Jackson says. "Just one last person to talk about. Lee Chan."

"Oh, shit, his last name was Lee?" Seungcheol asks, jaw hanging open. 

"I suppose you don't know very much about Mr. Lee, do you?" Jackson asks. 

"Not at all." Seungcheol says. 

"Tell us what you do know about him, Seungcheol." 

"Well, uh, Chan, he showed up on our couch one night, a year ago. Jeonghan and Joshua were coming home from a job, and he was just there, on the couch. Jeonghan said he almost shot the kid in the face. He said Joshua was going to set him on fire. Apparently, there were silver and blue pouches all over the couch. Kid said it was kool aid. That's all he fucking drank all the damn time. He was an otter on a constant sugar high all the time and his mouth was always blue. Chan knew tons of people, and always could get anything he wanted when he wanted. It was kind of scary. We let him stay because apparently he already knew what we did for jobs and he wasn't afraid to rat us out. He became Jeonghan's baby pretty easily."

"Jeonghan's baby?" Jackson asks, eyebrows raised in confusion.

"Yeah. Jeonghan just said that Chan was his new baby and if anyone messed with him he'd murder everyone in the house and then himself." Seungcheol said. 

"Odd." Jackson says.

"Very. Jeonghan was so protective of him, even though he didn't know anything about Chan either. Their relationship was so weird, even Joshua agreed with us on it." Seungcheol says. 

"Is there anything else you know about Chan?" Jackson asks him, glancing at his notebook.

"No." 

"Would you like to know what happened to him after the house fire?" Jackson asks him. 

Seungcheol nods. 

"According to a police report filed in this county, three months after the blaze, Lee Chan's body was found hung from a cell tower in the area. The state of the body was in horrible condition, but no sign of asphyxiation was found, and police concluded it as a murder. His body was found to have the chest cavity completely open, lungs exposed and ribs broken in a way that splayed the upwards. His knees and ankles were shattered. In the coat pocket, the investigators found a plastic bag with a sheet of paper in it, detailing Chan's horrific murder and wishing us well in the attempt to find the killer. Just last month, police-" Jackson explains to him, reading from his notes he had in his lap, though he's cut off before he can finish.

"Do you have any pictures?" Seungcheol asks. Jackson looks at him with an expression of pure shock. 

"You want to see?" Jackson asks him, almost fearfully.

"I could probably identify the killer without even being told. I picked up on all their specific patterns and the way they left bodies behind." Seungcheol says.

Jackson pulls some photos out from his notebook, handing them to Seungcheol. Seungcheol shuffles through them, inspecting every individual frame for a few moments. 

"Kwon Soonyoung." He says. "And Boo Seungkwan." Seungcheol states, calmly, handing the images back. "This is exactly what they told me they would do to him. It was them without a doubt."

"Yes, you're correct, DNA evidence proves it was them, but-" Jackson says, taking the pictures back. 

"But what?" Seungcheol asks him.

"Police suspect Soonyoung is going by his birth name again. They have no record of it ever existing. The information they have of him is so limited.

"His given name is Jang Younghoon. His birthday is June 15th, 1996, and he used to live in Namyangju-si in South Korea. Start there. He probably went back to his family or joined the Korean military to try and hide his identity. I knew all you guys wanted was information about them from me, but you tried to play it off as a fucking interview. You could have chosen a more humane way for me to give you information instead of letting me pour my heart out on a fucking video feed. Do whatever the fuck you want with the footage, put it on Netflix or some shit, I don't care anymore. I'm done with you." Seungcheol spits out, standing up so fast he knocks over his chair. 

Seungcheol walks over to his correctional officer by the door, whispering something to him, before they both leave the room, the door slamming shut behind them. 

The room is eerily silent after that.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> i put the beginning of my subway order in there you know it baby 
> 
> come yell at me here in the comments


End file.
